Sunday, 26 October 2014

Is there a personal animus against Israel from President Obama?

Since when
does the US Administration send condolences to a criminal's family?I know it happened in the Michael Brown case in
Ferguson, Missouri. Now it is happening in Israel after an Arab youth who hurled
firebombs at passing Israeli cars in Judea & Samaria, was killed by
security forces. The Obama Administration sent official condolences to the
family of this young terrorist when, as part of a violent mob, he endangering
the lives of Israelis.

Any country
must adopt an unquestioned zero tolerance to growing deadly violence andterrorism.
But the attitude of an American Administration is troubling. Would it, I wonder, have sent condolences to
the family had the perpetrator of firebomb attacks been an Israeli-American,
and the intended victims Arabs? I doubt it. I suspect the Administration would
have harshly condemned the act, the perpetrator, and Israel.Enough, already, of this political incorrectness!

But where
is this biased animus coming from? I strongly suspect it is coming from the top
of the present US Administration, from Obama himself.

There is a
deep motive behind Obama's animus toward Israel. It stems from his far left
Socialist political upbringing both at family and personal mentor levels. It
has framed his political mindset both at home and abroad. It is this that
affects his worldview. Anyone reading his autobiography, particularly the
imprisonment and alleged torture of his grandfather in Kenya by the British,
must take from it a sense that the American president harbors resentment to perceived
colonizers, oppressors, and imperialist powers. He looks on countries through
the prism of his upbringing. Official relations may appear normal on the
surface, but grievances bubble up in personal slights. Take, for example, the
little addressed gesture by Obama of returning the bust of Winston Churchill
that had taken pride of place in the White House, to Britain on entering the
presidential residence. It was nothing less than a personal gesture of
resentment.

There is
little doubt that Obama feels a personal kinship with the Muslim world. This
again is grounded by his personal life experiences in Muslim countries. A
personal affinity by an important world leader is often a good thing and can
make for a more peaceful world if balanced with wisdom and diplomatic skills.
What Obama does not take on board is the centuries old hatred of non-believers,
and a past of corrupt and primitively brutal reigns of conquest, slavery, and
slaughter. Instead, he shares their accusations that all their troubles have
been caused by the colonizers, oppressors, and imperial powers of which America
is the modern day leader.

Once
adopted, Israel is perceived as a colonizer and occupier, especially if that
view is expounded through his formative contact years with people such as Khalid
al Mansour a vile anti-Semite and radicalized Muslim, who was a high level
adviser to Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal. He wrote a letter of
recommendation to Harvard for Barack Obama to gain acceptance, and Arafat
adviser, Rashid Khalidi, to whom Obama lavished praise at a Chicago farewell
party when Khalidi headed off to Columbia.

Obama has exhibited a
double-talk and double vision to the carry-over of nations formally viewed as
American allies prior to his election. Trapped in an establishment that
conducts business as normal, his antipathy spills over in personal spats that
Israel has seen on numerous occasions.

Obama is a
quintessential abusive husband. He tells Israel he loves us even as he abuses
us.The latest example was his, and Kerry's,
rebuttal of Israel's Defense Minister in Washington, which was a new low point
in US-Israel relations.

The nastiness of the Obama Administration was
displayed by the State Department spokesperson that summarily dismissed the
Mahmoud Abbas incitement that led to ongoing Jerusalem terror attacks which
left a 3 month old baby dead, but slammed down on Jews legally buying homes in
Jerusalem.

This spitefulness is seen in America denying
visas to Israelis and temporarily preventing the resupply of armaments to
Israel in the middle of a Gaza war.

A headline
display of spite was Obama leaving Israel’s Prime Minister to stew in the White
House while he stormed off to have dinner with Michelle in March 2010. Obama
snubbed Netanyahu again in September 2012 over important Iranian nuclear
issues.

In an
October, 2013 article, “Obama gets cozy with Turkey; Snubs Israel.” Frank Gaffney wrote; “his administration has behaved toward
Israel as though it were, at best, a country in which we have no interests. At
worst, Obama seems to consider the Jewish State as a hostile power. He has:
repeatedly demeaned its leader, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; contributed
to its international isolation (for example, by demanding at one point an end
to settlement expansion as a precondition for the resumption of
Israeli-Palestinian negotiations); and subverted its vital interests (notably,
by declaring that Israel must withdraw to the indefensible pre-1967 borders).”

Gaffney added, “Barack Obama has treated Turkey as a
reliable partner even though, for the better part of a decade under its
Islamist Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, this nation that is supposedly a
NATO ally has been aligning ever more palpably with our adversaries.”

We see the US both retreating from the region
but also changing sides in the region. Obama supported the Muslim Brotherhood
on Egypt. During the Gaza conflict, his Administration sided with Qatar and
Turkey against the wishes of Israel, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

Because of local upheavals linked to the
attitude of Obama's Administration we have seen the emergence of an alliance of
common interests which is a fascinating new opportunity for Israel.

As Caroline
Glick astutely pointed out in a recent talk in Netanya, our neighbors are
pondering on how to get through an Obama presidency. This particularly applies
to an Israel suffering from a presidential animus, which is an integral part of
his personal and political DNA.

Barry Shaw is
the Special Consultant of Delegitimization Issues to The Strategic Dialogue
Center at Netanya Academic College. He
is the author of ‘Israel Reclaiming the Narrative.’www.israelnarrative.com